


The Precipice

by 221brothermine



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, Force Bond (Star Wars), Hopefully not incest, Reylo - Freeform, Sexual Content, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2018-05-16 06:26:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5817574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221brothermine/pseuds/221brothermine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey once met Ben Solo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Meeting

To be caught in a torrential rain on a desert planet was a fitting irony.

Ben Solo looks out at the chaos occurring on the surface of Jakku through the small, circular window of a stone hut. Lightning flashes and the sky crackles like two lightsabers striking against each other in an angry battle. The clouds are obsidian and huge. Puddles are forming above the water-blackened sand. The storm of a lifetime.

“We should have come another time,” Ben tells his uncle.

“Nonsense. This storm will pass quickly. They never last long in the desert.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Ben says impatiently. “I wanted to finish my training.”

“You will, my boy. Our visit here will only help you. Besides, mind-control shouldn’t be rushed.”

“Why am I the only one who needs additional training?” Ben grits out. “Why did the rest get to stay behind and finish their training, but not me?”

His questions are only met with a weary sigh.

* * *

 

The storm does end soon. Ben jumps at the opportunity to go outside and put as much distance between himself and his uncle as he could.

“Ben, where are you-” His uncle’s words are cut off once he slams the door shut.

He strides past the residences and trade posts of Tuanal without giving them a second glance. There are large puddles running through the streets, but he makes no effort to avoid them and the water soaks through his boots.

He reaches Luke’s landspeeder and doesn’t think about where he is going when he climbs inside and turns on the ignition.  When he glides away from the village, he reaches out to the Force and follows one of the many paths it weaves in the air like a thread in a piece of fabric.

* * *

 

He passes by the withered remains of old technology left over from the Battle of Jakku many years ago. Some of the aircrafts had been left with cavernous holes in their sides as tall as mountains. He passes a junkyard settlement. It is quiet and dark. Its haphazard tent structures make for ominous silhouettes.

It was not his intention to stop the landspeeder anywhere. Yet the carcass of one of the bigger battleships catches his eye and pulls him in, and he soon finds himself jumping out of the vehicle and circling the half-buried thing until he finds an opening- a hole in a wall at the back of the ship big enough for his tall frame to fit through.

There are traces of Light and Dark Force energy inside. It conflicts, though Ben senses the Dark Side’s dominance. The ship must have once belonged to the Empire.

A noise startles Ben out of his focus. He tenses, and his hand flies to the blaster pistol at his side.

It was a drawn out, melancholy sound. At first, Ben is hesitant. Then he thinks it could be an abandoned droid worth a valuable sum, and he considers the risks. If it was indeed a threat, he was powerful enough with the Force to stop them.

Taking slow, careful steps, he follows it.

Moonlight filters through gaping holes in the roof and illuminates the inside, so he navigates with ease. He knows the noise came from somewhere further inside, but he is lost when he reaches a narrow hallway with control rooms on either end. He peaks inside one of them. What little remains of the control panels and computer screens is covered in sand and dust.

He hears the noise again, and his head snaps in the direction he heard it from.

It comes from somewhere further down beyond the hallway he is in, but much closer than before. With careful steps, he treads in its direction. He removes the blaster pistol from its holster. With one quick movement of his thumb, the safety comes down with a _click_.

He comes around the edge of a hallway, and upon sensing a life form slouching against the wall only a few feet away, he grips the pistol tighter, ready to shoot. And just as quickly, his grip slackens. He frowns.

* * *

 

A small girl sits on the floor, her face in her hands.

Her shoulders are shaking. She is sniffling, and Ben understands. The noises he was hearing had been moans of anguish.

He doesn’t know how long he stands there, curiously studying this random girl and wondering what in the world she was doing there. Despite the dim lighting, he can make out that she is thin, and that the clothes she wears are nothing more than dirty rags. 

Unable to hold back his curiosity, he asks, “Who are you?”

The girl looks up with a gasp. She uses her hands to push herself further against the wall and away from him.

 “I mean no harm,” he says.

Her face is pale and round, and her nose and mouth are red from crying. Her eyes are wide and bright. She watches him intently, as if he were a sand snake ready to leap on her at any moment. Then, she spots the pistol he holds in his hand, and her eyes widen a fraction more.

Ben has forgotten that it was still in his hand. He places it back in its holster.

“I mean no harm,” he repeats. She still looks him up and down with frightened eyes.

“What is your name, girl?”

He thinks she will remain silent once again. It occurs to him that he could try to reach out with the Force to relax her mind, but he hasn’t mastered that skill quite yet. Luke had also warned him about exploiting that particular asset of the Force. To meddle with the mind could be considered an invasion of privacy and also do some serious damage.

Ben dismisses thoughts of his uncle, not particularly bent on agreeing with him. The situation doesn’t call for it anyway. He doesn’t much care if she answers or not.

However, after a pause of consideration, the girl mumbles, “Rey.”

“Rey what?”

She sniffles and shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

Ben snorts. Either the girl is lying or lost. “How old are you?”

“Seven.”

She is ten years younger than him.

“And what,” Ben takes a few steps towards her, “is a seven-year-old like you doing hiding out in a battleship at night, all alone?”

She doesn’t answer him. Instead, she brings up her knees and wraps her arms around them the closer he gets.

Having gotten closer, Ben sees that the girl is shivering. It takes him moment to realize why. She is soaking wet from head to toe, and the air is cold, now that it’s nighttime. She must’ve been caught in the storm. The rain has soaked her hair, and individual strands press against her pale forehead.

“If you stay here, you’ll get sick from the cold,” he tells her. “You need to go back to whatever village you came from.”

She begins to rock back and forth. She says something, but the words are muffled where she has her mouth pressed against her knees.

“I can’t hear you,” Ben says.

She lifts her head and exclaims, “I can’t go back!” before bowing her head once more.

Ben raises an eyebrow at this outburst. “And why is that?”

She stops moving, and when she lifts her head again, a determined frown creases her forehead. “I don’t want to work for Unkar Plutt anymore. So tell him I’m not coming back and leave.”

Ben steps even closer and crouches down in front of her. “Ah, so you’re one of Unkar’s little scavengers.”

She is startled by his close proximity and moves back until her back hits the wall. She thinks he is here to take her back to Unkar, Ben realizes. An older scavenger sent on a hunt to herd all the sheep led astray back into their pen.

“I don’t work for him,” Ben tells her.

Her eyes, which Ben makes out to be hazel, narrow.

He imagines this isn’t the first time she has run away, if she is cautious enough to be suspicious of him.

“You don’t need to be afraid,” he reassures her.

She continues to glare. “What’s your name?”

He hesitates. There is a name he’s tempted to give, but it sits too heavy on his tongue. “Ben,” he finally says. “Ben Solo.”

“If you aren’t working for Unkar, then what  _are_  you doing here, Ben Solo?”

Of all things, Ben has not anticipated being interrogated by a seven-year-old. Perhaps he would’ve take her confrontational question more seriously if she wasn’t so small and… _cute_. One corner of his lips twitches upward. “Exploring.” 

She seems to consider this answer, and he isn’t sure what he would say if she inquires further. However, a shiver visibly travels through her body, and her teeth chatter. She hugs herself tighter, and Ben is momentarily forgotten as she focuses on warming herself.

Ben’s dark eyes consider her small frame. It was absurd, how stubborn she was in spite of the circumstances. Would she stay here the whole night if he left? Or would she eventually crawl out and run back to one of the shelters in Niima Outpost?

Ben stands up, and his hands act of their own accord. He unclasps the latch at the shoulder of his robe and pulls it off in one swift motion, leaving only his black tunic to protect his torso. “Here,” he says, extending it out to her. “Take it.”

He stands tall above her, and he could see the wariness in her eyes. But eventually, she ever-so-slowly reaches out with a small, dainty hand, grabs the fabric, and takes it.

She frowns at the heavy thing and starts gingerly feeling it with her hands.

After a minute, Ben sighs impatiently. “You’re supposed to put it on.”

She looks at him for a moment, then back to the cloak. Then, finally, she takes one end and wraps it around her shoulder. After wrestling with the too-large thing for a few seconds, she manages to completely wrap herself within the black fabric, the sand-colored rags she wears no longer visible.

“I suggest you go back down there. The cloak won’t keep you warm for long.” Ben stands. The cold, bitter air is already beginning to sneak through the holes in his tunic, and he has no more reason to stay. He has tired out his frustration and knows he’ll need sleep to be ready for whatever struggles will arise tomorrow.  He begins to head for the entrance.

“Ben Solo,” he hears her mumble behind him. He pauses at the end of the hallway.

“‘Solo’ like Han Solo?” she says excitedly. “The smuggler who traveled the galaxy with Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker?”

Ben’s shoulders tense, and he turns his head to look at her. He shakes his head. “You delude yourself, girl. Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are only myths.”

Her shoulders droop and she casts down her gaze.

She is foolish, Ben thinks, to idolize those she does not know.

* * *

 

He is sliding into the landspeeder when he hears Rey’s voice cry out “Wait!”

He turns around and sees her figure stumbling towards him through the sand, the tails of his cloak flapping with the wind and winding between her legs.

She identifies the XP-42 landspeeder within seconds of laying her eyes on it.

He knows why she ran after him but lets her shyly ask if he could take her to Niima Outpost anyway.

“All right,” he consents. The smile on her face as she jumps inside the speeder tempts one to form on his own. He could sense her excitement threatening to spill over as she fidgets in her seat and her eyes roam curiously over every inch of the vehicle.

Niima Outpost is only five minutes away by landspeeder, though by foot it is a hefty distance. She watches him turn on the ignition and work the controls at first, then stares out into the sea of sand the rest of the journey, huddling in the cloak as the harsh wind blows against them.

This is not how he imagined his night would go. He thinks of his uncle and knows he would never have guessed this is what he’d be up to.

There is no trace of a smile on Rey’s face once she is climbing out of the landspeeder at the edge of the Outpost.

“Thank you for helping me, Ben,” she says. “Oh, and your cloak!”

She hurriedly begins to unwrap herself from it, but Ben says, “No. Keep it.”

She stops but looks unsure.

“I have plenty of others, I promise.”

She looks visibly warmer once she stops unwrapping the cloak and hugs herself again. She purses her lips. “Are you going to come back?” she asks. For a moment, Ben thinks she sounds almost hopeful, which was ridiculous, considering she just met him.

“It’s unlikely,” he tells her. “I’m not from here.”

“Oh,” she mumbles. Then, after a moment, she shrugs. “Well, neither am I. I’m just waiting for my family to come back, and then we’ll go somewhere else.”

“Your family,” Ben repeats.

She nods. “They’re on a mission on another planet right now, so they had to leave, but they’ll be back soon.”

Ben frowns at first. Then the realization hits him like a cold gust of wind. Knowing how most of the scavengers ended up where they were, Ben knows whatever family she may have once had was never coming back.

He doesn’t tell her this. Instead, he offers her the only words of comfort he knows that won’t give her any false hope, an expression that he’d gotten into the habit of using as a parting utterance before any trying times ahead.

“May the Force be with you, Rey.”

He isn’t sure whether she understands. He can’t imagine a seven-year-old scavenger on a planet as hopeless and isolated as Jakku knows about the Force and how it lived inside every living being, how it lived inside her. He doesn’t stick around to find out.

As he sweeps through the seemingly eternal desert, illuminated by the enchanting blue light of a lone moon, he can vividly picture Rey trudging back to a barely-standing shelter at Niima Outpost and finding a corner within to curl up against, clinging tightly to the cloak he’d given her as she lies her small head against the sand floor and shuts her tired eyes, falling into a deep slumber.

He knows of what she dreams. There is a wide resplendent ocean, and she stands on an island cloaked in verdant green. There are three other people on the island- a husband and wife, and a young child about her age. They smile at her and wave her over, and she runs to them with open arms. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how accurate my depiction of the weather conditions on Jakku actually are, but I hope it's believable enough. Flash floods do occur in the desert, and it also gets cold in the desert, and weather conditions vary from planet to planet. Plus, this is an entirely fictional world and I get to have some creative license with this stuff, right?
> 
> The next chapter will hopefully be posted sooner than later. I plan to split this story in half- the first half will consist of past events, and the second half will consist of post-TFA events.


	2. The Bridge

When he returns to the hut, it is pitch black. His uncle has already gone to sleep in his cot, as Ben could determine from the sound of his slow and steady breathing.

R2-D2 sits in the corner and gives a soft beep when Ben enters. _You’re back._ Ben gives a momentary glance at the droid, who is newly polished. Luke had been rubbing him down from all the sand that had blown into the crevices of his parts before Ben left.

He gives no response as he navigates to his own cot in the dark and plops down on it. He’s hungry, he realizes, but he cannot bring his legs to stand again. He takes off his boots, sets them aside, and finally lays his head to rest on the thin pillow.

Tomorrow, he and Luke were to meet with a member of the Church of the Force. At the thought, Ben lets out a long sigh.

The Church of the Force has a strong presence in the village of Taunul. Members of the Church strongly believe the reestablishment of the Jedi Order would bring balance to the Force. They had been operating for a long time, according to his uncle. During the Empire’s rule, they functioned as an underground operation but could now express their beliefs freely.

To Luke, the Church is valuable. They had assisted him in his search for potential Jedi across the galaxy. That is how he established the Jedi school in Coruscant.

One member he talks of more than the others: Lor San Tekka. The man is supposedly more knowledgeable on the history of the Jedi than most. Luke had gone on and on about how San Tekka had helped him learn about the spiritual beliefs of the Jedi (teaching him what Obi-Wan Kenobi could not) and assisted in determining the locations of the remaining Jedi Temples scattered throughout the galaxy.

Though Luke had remained vague on the subject and had not specified who in the Church would give him the “guidance” he thinks Ben is in need of, Ben guesses that is who they would be meeting the next day.

The thought is exhausting enough to put him to sleep.

* * *

 

Shadows wander at the edge of his dream.

He stands before a long bridge that he cannot see the end of. Beneath it is a bottomless void. Tentatively, he steps forward. It does not give, yet the darkness ahead keeps him from moving further.

The sound of muffled voices from behind makes him turn his head. There is a hallway behind him with metallic paneled walls; he must be abroad some sort of ship.

At the end of the hall stand two figures. Ben cannot make out their words, so he starts heading toward them. From this distance, he could already tell they are yelling at each other. Their necks are strained. The shorter of the two has his hands balled into fists, while the other has his hands on his hips. He knows who they are before he can see their faces.

A familiar tightness forms in his chest at the sight of himself arguing with his father. It is a slightly younger version of himself, with shorter hair and not nearly as much muscle in his form.

Ben does not wish to continue further or know what they could be arguing about this time. Yet their voices grow louder and louder, until finally—

“I don’t want to train with Luke!” young Ben exclaims. “You said I could travel the galaxy with you once I was older and go on diplomatic missions. Now that I’m older, you’re sending me away?”

“If your mother said you need training, then that’s what you’re going to do,” Han says sternly. “End of discussion.”

Ben clenches his fists. He remembers this argument all too well. He wants to tear his eyes away, yet he can’t.

“Why do I need training?” Ben inquires.

Han sighs. “You need it so you can control your powers, learn to concentrate. Find balance. I’m not good at explaining this stuff, all right?”

“Why can’t you do it?” Ben persists. “Or Mom?”

Han shakes his head. “We can’t train you. Only Luke can. He knows how to use the Force more than we do.”

“But I know how to use it too, Dad. I’m powerful with the Force,” the boy says eagerly. “Mom said I’m even more powerful than Luke was at my age. I want to go with you. Please, if you just let me-”

“That’s _enough_ , Ben!” his father shouts.

Ben flinches.

A shaky breath. “Our decision is final.”

There is a visible shift in the boy’s stance. Tears well in his eyes. The look of hurt is quickly replaced by one of determined concentration. Slowly, Ben lifts his right hand towards his father.

An expression of horror strikes Han’s features. He freezes in place, then doubles back into the wall.

For a moment, there is only the sound of Han’s shuffling movements as he tries to gain back control of his body. Ben knows his younger self is grappling with his father’s thoughts, trying to extract the information he needs while using his sudden surge in power.

He still remembers the images he found in his father’s head. There wasn’t much, but it was all he had needed. Memories of conversations with Leia spoken in lowered voices as they watched Ben sound asleep in his bed. Whispers of “he’s unstable” and “we can’t raise him”, followed by snippets of Han talking to Luke, asking if he could take Ben under his wing.

_“I don’t know how to handle him, Luke.”_

From all that he’d managed to gather, young Ben had understood two things: his father had been ashamed of his son, and he didn’t want him.

The invasion doesn’t last long. Soon, Ben drops his hold on his father and they both collapse to their knees, panting.

“Ben…” Han reaches out with one hand with the intention to place it on his son’s shoulder. Sweat sheens his forehead, and he is breathing heavily.

“So that is what you think of me, Father.” The boy’s voice trembles. “I’m an embarrassment to you.”

“No. You’re…. you’re wrong,” Han makes out between gasps. “Leia and I, we only want what’s best for you.”

The Ben that is watching the scene unfolding in front of him clenches his teeth. The darkness surrounding him in the dream hums at his father’s word. _Lies._

Young Ben hangs his head and lets out a strangled sob. “You’re sending me away because you’re ashamed. What have I ever done to make you feel that way?”

“Ben, listen to me,” Han pleads.

“Am I a burden to you, Father?” young Ben raises his voice, speaking above Han. “More than you bargained for?” He stands shakily to his feet, and Han’s hand falls off his shoulder. “Mother told me you never planned to have me. Has it become too much for you now?”

Han stands on unsteady feat and leans against the wall for support. He growls in frustration. “I am sending you away because you are _out of control!_ ”

Ben is silenced.

“You- you’re so impatient. So sensitive and eager. You’re having these…these _outbursts_ ,” Han gestures widely with his hand. “You could hurt somebody. Look at yourself, Ben.”

Older Ben can’t help but wince at the words even now. Yes, his younger self is an ungainly sight. Eyes reddened with tears and the pathetic desire to please his father apparent on his face, even though he knows now it is a futile effort.

The darkness around him rumbles likes thunder clouds. He could hear it hissing, _You are never enough for him._

“It’s for your own good,” Han states.

Tears glisten on Ben’s face, but he has stopped crying. He straightens and, without saying a word more, flees down the corridor.

The Ben watching had been desperate for the scene to end, yet he steps forward now, carefully watching his father. He didn’t know what had transpired after this.

Han stood leaning on the wall, steadying his breathing. Exhaustion marred his features. Ben held his breath, waiting for a sneer or a disdainful stare in the direction his younger self had left. It was sure to come.

But the dream becomes entirely enveloped by darkness. His father and the corridor fade away. Ben turns around and finds the bridge still there.

At the end of it stands a man dressed all in a black with a helmet masking his face and a cape hanging from his shoulders.

Ben isn’t sure how he knows it is Darth Vader.

The sight of him is enough to make him tense. His throat goes dry. There is a pregnant pause as he waits for Darth Vader to speak.

Instead of speaking, Vader, a mask and shadow of a man, unleashes a red lightsaber and points it at Ben.

The urge to turn and run becomes overwhelming. His heart is thrumming in his chest because he can sense Vader’s intentions.

 _You are weak._ The shadows speak again. Ben isn’t sure whether it is Vader’s voice, or someone else’s entirely. _Witness true power._

With deft, determined steps, Vader makes his way towards him across the bridge. Ben wants to move, but his legs are glued to the spot. He tries to turn his torso, but to no avail. He is being held in place by the Force.

When Vader is a mere two feet away, there is no hesitation. He swings back the lightsaber and plunges it straight through Ben’s heart.

Ben awakens with a start. He sits up in bed, gasping for air.

Luke is at his side. He places a hand on his shoulder. “Ben,” he says worriedly. “Are you all right?”

“I- I saw-” Ben stutters. He looks around the room frantically, searching for any descending clouds of darkness that talk and breath and tell him things he does not want to hear. “My father...and.…”

With a patience that he has learned to develop over years of discipline, Luke waits for Ben to gather himself and his thoughts. His calm blue eyes search the boy’s pale and sweaty face for clues of what has disturbed him.

After the terror abates, and his breathing is normal again, Ben’s face resumes its default stoic expression. He turns so that he can sit with his legs hanging from the edge of the cot and stares blankly at the floor.

“Was it a Force vision?” Luke asks.

“No,” Ben answers flatly. "Just another nightmare.”

Luke is not convinced. “You’ve been having these nightmares rather frequently. Force visions can often resemble dreams, but if there is a reoccurring theme-”

“I said it’s nothing,” Ben snaps.

After this, Luke decides not to press him.

It is the early hours of the morning, and his uncle says it is good that they are both awake; it was time for them to go and meet with the Church of the Force.

Luke walks over to Artoo to switch off his low-power mode. The droid beeps excitedly. Ben cannot pretend to share the same sentiments.

* * *

 

There is a hint of dusk at the planet’s edge when they leave the hut. It creates a gradient of white-yellow sky that transitions into a deep blue.

They begin to make their way into Taunul village. There are rows of other clay and stone huts that closely resemble their own, some bigger and some smaller. This early in the morning, the streets and most of the trading posts are deserted. Only the wind and the flapping of tent sheets are heard, along with occasional soft beeps from Artoo, who trails behind them.

“Where is your cloak?” his uncle asks him after a few minutes of walking in silence.

Ben is momentarily confused about the whereabouts of the clothing item himself when he suddenly remembers Rey.

“Last night, I found a young scavenger girl hiding out in the remains of a ship. She had gotten wet from the storm and it was cold. I gave her the cloak so that she wouldn’t die,” Ben explains. The threat to the girl’s life was an exaggeration, he knows, but he would feel foolish saying he gave her his possession for anything less. “Then she asked me to take her back to the Outpost, and I did.”

“A young scavenger girl?” Luke asks, surprised. “What was she doing away from the Outpost?”

“She said she didn’t want to work as a scavenger anymore, so she ran away.”

Luke hums thoughtfully. “Sounds brave. Not many have the guts.”

 _He forgot to add foolish_ , Ben thinks. Then, he remembers something Rey said. Curiosity gets the better of him, despite what he already knows, so he decides to ask. “Uncle, do any of the scavengers have families?”

“It’s very unlikely,” Luke says solemnly. “At least for the young scavengers. Some of the older ones have come to work at the Outpost to pay off old debts, so they may have families on the planets they originally came from. Otherwise, most are orphans, whether their families have left them behind or been killed.”

That confirms Ben’s suspicions.

Little Rey better learn about the mistake of having high expectations, or she was bound for a life of disappointment.


	3. The Thief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, that trailer.

Lor San Tekka is a man with a face weathered by the sun and sand, with hair just as light. His brown robes flow easily with his movements as stalks around the dome-like building that is open to members of the faith. Its walls are the same color as the pale sand, like everything else in Jakku.

 

His uncle left him alone with San Tekka and wandered out to explore the trading posts outside. Ben feels like an intruder inside the Church. Or rather, he feels like the building is intruding a place inside him. He is not a member of this faith. He hardly knows anything about it. Yet he is being accepted like one, spoken to like one. Perhaps worse of all, he is expected to revere it.

 

“What do you want to achieve with your Jedi training, Ben?” San Tekka asks him as he picks out a book from a small collection on a shelf protruding from the wall. The shelf looks to be made of sand. 

Ben feels sweat beading on his forehead. Jakku’s single sun is rising and it brings a merciless heat with it.

 

“Strength. Endurance. Balance,” Ben states. He is deciding to be patient, to play along. He is curious about what the man could tell him about the Force and bettering his training.

 

Luke had left him alone with San Tekka, which contributes to his ease now.

 

San Tekka nods his head. “Fair ambitions for a Jedi. Balance, that is the most challenging. The galaxy rests on either side of a thin line—either on the Dark Side, or the Light. Very rarely does it rest on the line itself.”

 

“What can you teach me?” Ben asks.

 

San Tekka looks up from the book. “Luke mentioned you’ve been having nightmares.”

 

At the mention of his uncle, Ben feels something hot start in his chest, like Jakku’s sun burns inside him. Luke talked to this solemn-looking man about him in hushed tones, just like Han Solo had talked to Luke about his disgraced son. Ben was a bad secret, a supernova rippling through space that needed avoiding.

 

“I don’t see how that is relevant,” Ben says, tone grating.

 

San Tekka purses his lips. Then he looks Ben over, his blue eyes sharp like icicles. Ben keeps steady in his stance. The man is looking like over like he is searching for something to be confirmed. “I want to help you, Ben,” San Tekka says. “So does Luke.”

 

“Then train me,” Ben says. “Better yet, let me go back to Coruscant, before I fall behind my peers.”

 

“Impatience is unbecoming of a Jedi.”

 

Ben nearly laughs. His lip does twitch, but with something more bite than humor.

A mistake. This was a mistake. San Tekka does not want to help. He’s here to tell Ben what he already knows.

 

“This book is old, but valuable. It discusses the Force’s effect on the mind. Study it,” San Tekka outstretches the book.

 

“I’m here to _read?_ ” Ben’s voice quivers with disbelief. His mother taught him several of the written languages that are only useful for diplomatic correspondence and engineering; reading books was a forgotten practice.

 

“To learn,” San Tekka corrects.

 

Sweat is gathering at Ben’s back and he is tired from the restless night where he had to see the truth of his father. But he isn’t undisciplined. He isn’t _impatient._ He has trained harder than anyone. They take him for a padawan.

 

“Is that all?”  He asks through gritted teeth.

 

“Finish the book. Then we can talk about furthering your training.” San Tekka stretches out the book further.

 

Saying nothing, Ben grabs the book and does not spare another glance at San Tekka’s watchful gaze as he stalks to the exit. The sun blinds him and he has to shield his eyes as he goes to find Luke.

* * *

 

 The first few seconds of coming into consciousness feel blissful and warm. That fades away when Rey’s eyes flutter open.

 

She didn’t get away.

 

She felt her dream slipping away from her. Only small flashes of images are left; water stretching on forever, dark blue and calm. And green, a whole field of it. The warm presence of people.

 

Ben Solo’s cloak is still wound tightly around her. The memory of last night comes back to her just as the dream subsides. It feels like a faraway thing, though her legs ache in proof of her long trek.

 

She hardly had a destination in mind when she set out into the desert and only settled for the abandoned battleship to shield herself from the pouring rain. It had been so damp and cold. Every time the thunder roared, she pulled her knees in closer. When the lightening flashed and crackled across the sky like a whip, it revealed the skeleton of the ship. The control panels were like old teeth with its broken parts and missing buttons, the hallways like hollow bones. Rey was like the meal stuck in the animal’s stomach once it died, left to be excavated from beneath all the metallic waste.

 

Ben Solo had been the one to excavate her.

 

The older boy had been curious. His height had seemed monstrous in the shadows when he first approached. It would have been easy for him to drag her back to the Outpost if that was his purpose. His eyes, when illuminated by the moon’s light, were different. They were soft like fertile earth (Rey had seen some once in a clay pot brought by a traveler) when he started asking her questions, and when he’d given her the cloak. When he uttered the words, ‘May the Force be with you’, they held a power. Rey had felt _energy_ , like he was directing it at her with his gaze. It frightened her and exhilarated her.

 

She wants to see him again. He traveled at least some part of the galaxy, since he was only a passerby. He could tell her about the other planets he’s seen.

 

She sits up and stretches and the cloak slides off her shoulders. When she rises, she makes sure to fold it carefully and tucks it underneath the single sheet, sand-colored, that is her bedding. There is nowhere else for her to put it, and taking it with her will slow her down.

 

Half of the scavengers have already left the camp. An early start is best, Rey knows, but she had a long night.

* * *

 The wisps of her hair are sticking to her forehead by the time they finish for the day. The sun begins to set over the horizon, and Mashra, another scavenger, let’s Rey sit on her speeder as they make their way back to Niima Outpost.

 

Rey looks behind her shoulder to check that the bag strapped to the seat behind her is still in place. Inside were all the things they had collected from a New Republic starship that day.

 

“We have a good hoard today,” Mashra shouts over the noise of the speeder. Rey turns to look at her. The woman’s long, dark hair tickles her face as the wind blows it back.  “It should give us enough food for a week!” 

 

Mashra turns her head and smiles at Rey. Rey smiles back. Food was good.

* * *

 They share a large loaf of bread and the regular meat stew, which never had enough salt. Both came from powder in a tightly-sealed bag. Sometimes Mashra finds an animal in the desert that she deems has enough muscle and fat on its bones, kills it, skins it, and cooks it on an electric skillet. Rey dreams of the taste at her hungriest moments in the day, remembers the particular sheen that crispy animal skin had and how good it was to have fat drip down her lips and from her fingers which she could later rub away into the sand.

 

The bag of parts sits between their folded legs. The other scavengers look at it as they return from their own hunt, until Mashra scares them off with a stern gaze. Her eyes are dark like her hair, and there are lines forming around them in the places where her smile reaches.

 

“I’ll start cleaning them tonight,” Mashra tells Rey. “You get some sleep now and help me finish tomorrow.”

 

Rey nods. After licking the bottom of her tray clean from the stew, she goes to her corner of the camp.

 

Mashra doesn’t know that Rey tried to run again, and Rey is horrified now, thinking she almost left without her. Next time—if there is a next time—she will ask Mashra to come with her. The woman hates Unkar Plutt as much as she does, Rey knows, because she spits on the ground whenever he’s nearby and has his back turned. It could work if they were a team; Rey would scavenge for parts that they could use for themselves; Mashra could hunt and skin the animals.

 

She had forgotten about Ben Solo’s cloak, and when she sees the lump of it under her sheet, she rushes to pull it out.

 

The fabric is a light grey color, and sturdier than anything she has ever owned. There isn’t a single tear or loose thread in it. He said he had more of them, and Rey wonders how he came to have them. Was he a scavenger, too? Somewhere on another planet, where there were bigger, more-intact ships whose parts he could trade for good cloaks?

 

Again she wraps herself in its folds as she settles down to sleep. She hopes to dream last night’s dream again.

* * *

 

“You clean these, and I’ll take the ones I finished to Plutt,” Mashra tells Rey and plops down the bag of remaining parts on the table in front of Rey.

 

Rey nods, grabbing a cloth and a degreaser from where they lays on the table. Mashra gives her a smile and a wink before she trudges over to Unkar Plutt’s post. Rey can hear him yelling and throwing back parts he didn’t find satisfactory at a skinny, olive-skinned scavenger she hasn’t seen before. He must be new, she thinks. He’ll get the tricks of the trade eventually, bring all the right parts. But for today he might starve, Rey thinks, as she watches him walk away from Unkar’s post, rubbing his shoulder where the Crolute had struck him with a part.

 

The grease is hardest to remove, but Mashra has taken care of most of it. The rest is sand, dust and dirt. Rey’s arms are aching by the time she finishes scrubbing out the last piece. She wipes her sweat from her forehead, then takes a sip from the water container slung over her shoulder with the help of a strap, the flask itself resting at her hip.

 

When she finishes drinking and opens her eyes, someone is standing by her table.

 

She recognizes the man. It is the scavenger that Unkar Plutt rejected. He is looking at the parts she had cleaned like a parched man looks at water. Then he looks at Rey.

 

“Where did you get those?” he asks. His voice is shaky and thin, like him.

 

She considers him. “At the Starship Graveyard.”

 

The man is sweating more than she is; the droplets are pouring down from his forehead. He wipes his face and nods at the parts. “A small girl like you c-can get all that?”

 

Rey nods. “I work for Mashra.”

 

“Where is your friend, then? Here?” he looks around but it is plain to see that it is only Rey in the cleaning station.

 

Rey looks to Unkar Plutt’s post and squints, trying to make out Mashra in the line, but she can’t. “She’ll be back soon,” she says, looking the man up and down and noticing that he is trembling from head to toe. “She’s only gone for a moment before we trade in the parts.”

 

“Only for a moment,” he repeats, nodding his head like he understands. Then he lunges forward and snatches her bag.

 

His hands sweep across the table in a blur of movement. A few of the parts she hadn’t put away scatter to the ground.

 

Rey jumps up and screams, “Stop!”

 

He gives her one more look, his eyes big and wild, and runs. Without a second thought, Rey runs after him.

* * *

The blistering heat and sand-sweeping wind prompts Ben to pull the hood of his cloak over his head and wrap a scarf around the bottom half of his face so that only his eyes showed.

 

The speeder is malfunctioning. The engine is puffing and spurting and Luke says it is overheating; it wasn’t meant to withstand Jakku’s heat. It will still run for a few miles and he asks Ben to run it over to Niima Outpost for a temperature stabilizer before they get stuck in their stone hut, unable to transverse Jakku or find their way to the starship port where they will take their leave.

 

Ben doesn’t like the idea of staying in Jakku longer than necessary and is glad to have an excuse down the book San Tekka gave him, so he goes.

 

The engine makes sputtering noises as it glides to the Outpost and Ben is afraid it will stop in the middle of the desert. He has to squint his eyes the whole ride through, the light too harsh on his eyes. On the horizon the air looks blurred and hazy. For a moment he thinks he sees a figure with a black mask and a long cape.

 

He reaches the Outpost on the speeder’s last breath, stopping it in a hovercraft-leaving area. The roof tents are still, not a bit of wind to sway them. All the residents appear to have gone scavenging. Ben is glad, he supposes, to not be resigned to their miserable fate. It’s one notch below reading ancient text and being stuck in a hut with his uncle.

 

He only has one foot out of the speeder before he hears the sound of a shriek. He looks around and spots her: the scavenger girl, in all the fury her small frame could muster, sprinting between the Outpost tents, chasing a man twice her height.

 

She is shouting a word he can’t make out. He is drawn forward in her direction, the sight fascinating to him. She’s shouting _thief_ , he realizes _._ A bag is bouncing between the man’s legs and he curves around a tents pole without caution, knocking it down and collapsing the tent.

 

Rey is caught underneath it and for a moment she is a restless lump underneath the course fabric of the tent’s roof. The man is running in Ben’s direction now, towards the three speeders, including Ben’s, that are ported here.

 

Ben can make out his panting as he approaches, eyes set on the speeder situated in the middle, to the right of Ben’s. The objects in the bag he clings tightly to are heavy, Ben can tell. He begins to pat down his pockets until he retrieves a key for the speeder.

 

It doesn’t take Ben long to understand the situation. Without thinking, he strides over to the theft-accused, rearing up like an intercepting starship, and thrusts his hand forward.

 

The man freezes, the air around him looking off, like static. Only his widened eyes move, and he fixes them on Ben.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Ben says.

 

The man’s eyes become frantic. He is trying desperately to understand what is holding him in place. Ben would be lying if he said he didn’t get some satisfaction out of it. He ambled forward and snatched the bag from the man’s hands with his other hand.

 

Rey is on the tip of his tail and runs up red in the face, the wisps of her hair going in all directions. Ben sees that she is not panicked, but rather determined. There is a deep crease between her brows like she means to take down the man with her stare.

 

She stops dead at the sight of Ben, his hand, and the immobile scavenger. Her eyes go wide, just like the man’s.

 

“Is this yours?” Ben asks, lifting the bag for her to see.

 

Her gaze slowly shifts from the static-ky air surrounding the thief, to Ben’s hand, and finally to his face. She swallows and nods.

 

“Stealing from a child,” Ben addresses the man, who was perspiring so much sweat stains began to appear underneath his armpits. “How noble.” He lowers his hand and the man collapses to the sand.

 

The thief scrambles to his feet and gets on his speeder. Ben waits till he becomes a faint dot on the horizon.

 

There are freckles peppering Rey’s face, Ben realizes, when he looks at her peering up at him with one eye shut and the other squinting.

 

The bag lands at her feet with a thump.

 

He begins making his way to Unkar Plutt’s post. Rey runs after him, gasping for air, the bag clanking against her feet.

 

“Wait!” she shouts.

* * *

For every step he takes, she has to take two.

 

“How did you do that? Stop him with your hand?”

 

Ben sighs. He debates whether this conversation is worth having, whether his powers are worth explaining. There was something pleasing about her curiosity, the way her small voice sounded awed. He dismissed the idea, remembering this might lead to an unpleasant conversation about his family.

“He was frozen because fear made him weak. That’s all.”

 

“But how could he not move at all? He wasn’t even breathing! And the air around him…you did something to it.”

 

Observant girl.

 

“The heat is playing tricks on you, Rey,” Ben dismisses. “You better drink water and rest and avoid running into trouble. You’re lucky I was there to help you at all.”

 

He feels a tug on his robes and he stops. She is holding the fabric of his robe, still catching her breath but looking at him fiercely with those hazel eyes. “Please don’t go,” she pleads. “Please show me what you did again. I—I want to learn too.”

 

Ben feels something threading in the air again, like he had on his first night here when he was traversing the sandy dunes of Jakku.

 

“Please, Ben Solo,” she says. It is odd, hearing her say his name without any added weight to it. It isn’t grave or expectant. It carries no understanding of his family. She sees him. Just him.

 

“I can’t,” he says. Her face falls, and he wishes his answer could be different. Then again, she is probably better off not being a Force user. She would have to become one of Luke’s padawans, not one of Ben’s.

 

He turns away and continues his path to Unkar Plutt’s station. Rey doesn't follow him this time.


End file.
